Overview

Award-winning author Chris Moriarty returns to a dazzling cyber-noir far future in this gritty, high-stakes thriller where the only rule is “Evolve . . . or die.”

The Age of Man is ending. The UN’s sprawling interstellar empire is failing as its quantum teleportation network collapses, turning once-viable colonies into doomed island outposts. Humanity’s only hope of survival is the Drift: a mysterious region of space where faster-than-light travel—or something far stranger—seems possible. As mercenaries and pirates flock to the Drift, the cold war between the human-led UN and the clone-dominated Syndicates heats up. Whoever controls the Drift will chart the future course of human evolution—and no one wants to be left behind in a universe where the price of failure is extinction.

When the AI called Cohen ventures into the Drift, he dies—allegedly by his own hand—and his consciousness is scattered across the cosmos. Some of his ghosts are still self-aware. Some are insane. And one of them hides a secret worth killing for. Enter Major Catherine Li, Cohen’s human (well, partly human) lover, who embarks on a desperate search to solve the mystery of Cohen’s death—and put him back together. But Li isn’t the only one interested in Cohen’s ghosts. Astrid Avery, a by-the-book UN navy captain, is on the hunt. So is William Llewellyn, a pirate who has one of the ghosts in his head, which is slowly eating him alive. Even the ghosts have their own agendas. And lurking behind them all is a pitiless enemy who will stop at nothing to make sure the dead don’t walk again.

Praise for Ghost Spin “Complexity is the watchword here, of thought, idea, narrative, character and plot. . . . Highly rewarding.”—Kirkus Reviews “Rewarding . . . The adaptations humans make to survive in the hostile environments of other worlds, a galaxy teetering on the edge of singularity . . . are genuinely visionary.”—Publishers Weekly “This stand-along ‘spin-off’ offers a compelling tale of adventure/suspense blended with cybernoir and high-tech sf.”—Library Journal “An excellent read: gripping, fast-paced, provocative and handsome.”—Tor.com “A brilliant mix of space opera, cyberpunk, and just plain great writing, Moriarty’s work is some of the most impressive in science fiction today.”—SFRevu

Product Details

About the Author

Chris Moriarty was born in 1968 and has lived in Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. A former environmental attorney who has worked as a ranch hand, horse trainer, and backcountry guide, Moriarty is the author of Spin State, Spin Control, and Ghost Spin.

Editorial Reviews

Moriarty’s third near-future Spin novel (after Spin Control) is both rewarding and frustrating. As the brutal but reliable framework of the UN-Syndicate war collapses into anarchy in the wake of the depletion of Bose-Einstein Condensate, the material needed for reliable faster-than-light travel, Cohen, an artificial intelligence sometimes housed in a human body, commits suicide on the industrial world of New Allegheny. His lover, Catherine Li, gets word of Cohen’s death but refuses to believe that he would kill himself. She undertakes the extraordinarily dangerous journey from Earth to New Allegheny and soon gets tangled in the affairs of corrupt officials, rogue intelligence agents, and pirates. Dense prose sometimes conceals as much as it reveals, and while some elements—the adaptations humans make to survive in the hostile environments of other worlds, a galaxy teetering on the edge of singularity—are genuinely visionary, others leave the reader wanting more. Agent: Scott Hoffman, Folio Literary Management. (May)

Publishers Weekly

“Complexity is the watchword here, of thought, idea, narrative, character and plot. . . . Highly rewarding.”—Kirkus Reviews “Rewarding . . . The adaptations humans make to survive in the hostile environments of other worlds, a galaxy teetering on the edge of singularity . . . are genuinely visionary.”—Publishers Weekly “This stand-along ‘spin-off’ offers a compelling tale of adventure/suspense blended with cybernoir and high-tech sf.”—Library Journal “An excellent read: gripping, fast-paced, provocative and handsome.”—Tor.com “A brilliant mix of space opera, cyberpunk, and just plain great writing, [Chris] Moriarty’s work is some of the most impressive in science fiction today.”—SFRevu

From the Publisher

Third installment of Moriarty's independently intelligible far-future series (Spin Control, 2006, etc.) featuring a power struggle between the UNSec military-industrial empire and its cold-war adversaries, the AI-enhanced clones of the Syndicate. UNSec's command of its interstellar colonies is crumbling as its quantum teleportation network collapses. Key to the survival of both UNSec and Syndicate, and perhaps the human species itself, is the Drift: a strange region of space where quantum reality seems to operate on a macro level. When the almost unimaginably complex Emergent AI called Cohen reportedly suicides on planet New Allegheny, various pieces of him--ghosts--survive in scattered networks, some insane, some conscious. Cohen's wife, ex-UNSec major Catherine Li, doesn't believe the story. Li faces several problems: She's wanted on certain planets as a war criminal, but thanks to UNSec boss Helen Nguyen's restructuring of her psyche, she has no recollection of what she's accused of doing. And the only way she can reach New Allegheny is by "scattercast," having herself beamed toward her destination as an electronic download. Unfortunately, with this method, anybody with the right equipment can grab a copy of her. Consequently, another version of Li works for UNSec Navy captain Astrid Avery, whose mission is to hunt down ex-Navy pirate William Llewellyn. Llewellyn, tortured by a guilty secret, must operate in the Drift but needs a far more powerful navigational AI than the one already in his head. The one he gets is one of Cohen's self-aware ghosts, and the ghost promptly begins to absorb him body and soul. Complexity is the watchword here, of thought, idea, narrative, character and plot; the resulting dense, chewy narrative avoids the obvious pitfalls, though it's certainly not an easy read. Highly rewarding, but you'll need to bring along plenty of active brain cells.

Kirkus Reviews

Maj. Catherine Li, formerly a UN peacekeeper, works to keep humankind alive, which despite expanding throughout the galaxy still teeters on the brink of extinction. When her AI lover enters a part of space known as "the Drift," he dies, apparently by his own hand. Now Li turns her attention to gathering up the scattered pieces of his ghost in hope of discovering how he really died and whether he can be reconstructed. But other parties are also searching for the traces of the dead AI. VERDICT Set in the same distant-future world as Spin State and Spin Control, this stand-alone "spin-off" offers a compelling tale of adventure/suspense blended with cybernoir and high-tech sf. This is a good choice for series fans or lovers of cyberfiction.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

It's hard to believe there isn't a review of this book here. The Spin series puts the reader into an exciting dystopian world that I can taste when I'm in one of these books. I want to live in this place.

A humorous collection of photo-illustrations from the popular back page of ESPN The MagazineImagine Joe Paterno
as George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life. Or Terrell Owens sitting at a table for eleven at Thanksgiving. Or celebrity dogs playing poker. These are ...

When past and present collide, predicting the future is impossible.Everyone knows that Prophet -- former
Navy SEAL, former CIA spook, full-time pain in the ass -- works alone. But his boss at Extreme Escapes, Ltd. has just assigned Proph a ...

With a wife he loves and an exciting London-based career, architect Charles Waterston's life seems
in perfect balance. Nothing in his comfortable existence prepares him for the sudden end to his ten-year marriage—or his unwanted transfer to his firm's New ...

For more than a century, Ghost Ranch has attracted people of enormous energy and creativity
to the high desert of northern New Mexico. Occupying twenty-two thousand acres of the Piedra Lumbre basin, this fabled place was the love of artist ...

This is horror on a grand scale, reminiscent of Stephen King. Publishers WeeklyThe book that
launched the Pine Deep trilogyThirty years ago, a blues musician called the Bone Man killed the devil at the crossroads, only to be beaten and ...

A tantalizing tale of suspense and family secrets that weaves Victorian ghost stories into the
present—where they start to come true Timid, solitary librarian Gerard Freeman lives for just two things: his elusive pen pal Alice and a story he ...

With unprecedented scope and consummate skill, Norman Mailer unfolds a rich and riveting epic of
an American spy. Harry Hubbard is the son and godson of CIA legends. His journey to learn the secrets of his society—and his own past—takes ...